Dead bodies hauled over shoulders, corpses desecrated: India is no country to die in

HIGHLIGHTS

After a Kalahandi hospital refused to provide ambulance, a man was forced to carry body of his wife for 12 kilometres on his shoulders.

Two hospital workers broke the hip bone of a body to make it a compact and transportable bundle in Balasore.

A group of people waded through a dirty pond carrying a dead body in Jabalpur as sand mafia occupied the main route.

Dana Manjhi carrying his wife's body in Kalahandi, Odisha.

HIGHLIGHTS

After a Kalahandi hospital refused to provide ambulance, a man was forced to carry body of his wife for 12 kilometres on his shoulders.

Two hospital workers broke the hip bone of a body to make it a compact and transportable bundle in Balasore.

A group of people waded through a dirty pond carrying a dead body in Jabalpur as sand mafia occupied the main route.

India is a nuclear power, an IT superpower and an economic giant in global trade. However, 69 years after Independence, a basic dignity of death seems to still be eluding many people. Three incidents in two days show how the system has failed the common man even in death.

India is a nuclear power, an IT superpower and an economic giant in global trade. However, 69 years after Independence, a basic dignity of death seems to still be eluding many people.

Three incidents in two days show how the system has failed the common man even in death.

The first report came from Kalahandi in Odisha, where a tribal man, Dana Manjhi had to carry the body of his wife, Amangadei for 12 kilometres after not being able to get any government help.

District hospital authorities allegedly refused to arrange a vehicle for him and he did not have money to hire a hearse. Manjhi wrapped his wife's body in old bed sheets and started walking towards his home, some 60 kilometres away. His teenage daughter was seen sobbing along the way.

He had walked with his wife's body for 12 kilometres, before some youths alerted local officials, who arranged an ambulance.

The second incident was again reported from Odisha. A horrifying video emerged from the Balasore district in which a hospital worker was seen standing over a dead body, pressing it down with his foot and breaking the bones at the hip to make it a compact, transportable bundle.

The two hospital workers then stuffed the broken body into a large plastic bag, tied its ends and slung it on a bamboo stick. Then, they carried it through the road. No vehicles were made available to them either.

These spine-chilling, macabre visuals go against all sensibilities attached to dignity of human life.

Salamani Barik, 76, was run over by a train on Wednesday. Her body was lying at a community centre in Soro town of Balasore district of Odisha.

As per law, a post-mortem was necessary but there were no such facilities at Soro. The body needed to be transported to the district headquarters, some 30 km away.

No ambulance was available there, hiring an auto-rickshaw seemed expensive, so the authorities asked the sweeper staff to transport the body till the railway station from where the Railway Police would take the body to Balasore. Finding the body stiff and difficult to carry, the workers broke it at the hip to fit it into the plastic bag.

FUNERAL PROCESSION THROUGH DIRTY POND

The third incident was reported from Madhya Pradesh. A video has emerged from Jabalpur, in which a group of people are seen wading through a dirty pond carrying a dead body.

The people were part of a funeral procession, which was forced to wade through the pond as the sand mafia had blocked the main route leading to the cremation ground. The authorities haven't paid any heed to complaints lodged by the local people. Clearly, dignity in death is an alien concept to this nexus of corruption.

Watch video here

WATCH: Locals forced to take out last rites procession through a pond after goons block route in MP's Jabalpurhttps://t.co/aGHRswjXwu

In May this year, two youths rode their bike with the body of a relative from Jharigan Community Health Centre to Bharuamunda village in Nabarangpur district of Odisha. They were forced to carry the body for 30 kilometres as they did not have enough money to arrange a vehicle.

Another incident took place in Rayagada district of Andhra Pradesh, where in April this year, a family was forced to tow their daughter's body in a trolley-rickshaw for the last rites as no one came forward to help them.

As India aspires to be a developed nation, we hope the government first ensures its people the very basic facilities first.

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